Sunday, September 18, 2011

more international swatch spam! my swap with shel :)

Hi guys! I have some lovely polishes from the UK to show you today.

I was considering making an order from Barry M, but then the lovely Shel from If It Shines It's Mines offered to swap! Of course it is nicer to swap than buy direct from the company, right? Because then 2 people get lovely polishes!

I gave Shel a list of all the Barry M's I thought were cute and asked her to surprise me with a Models Own. And she sure did good! Let's start with the one Models Own.

Models Own - Magenta Pearl. This is a really pretty deep magenta polish. In the bottle it looks as if it will be a metallic shimmery frost, the type that will cover in 1 coat and be really good for stamping.
But when you start applying it, it is very different! It is sort of like a shimmery jelly.

It's hard to tell in the photos but it does have that nice jelly look to it, with the added bonus of shimmer! Plus the color is really lovely.
I love this one a lot! You surprised me well, Shel :)

Now for my little army of Barry M's! I just love these little square bottles. If I ever go to the UK I'm sure I would come home with another army.

Barry M - Blue Moon. The formula on this one is really bad (4 coats!) but I love the color despite the application. I think if I use a different base coat I might get better results.
See how the polish is sort of sticking off at the tips? That kept getting worse with every layer I applied.

So I'm not sure what the issue is here.
The shimmer is very subtle and the color is lovely, it's too bad the formula isn't great.
I bet this would be a nice polish to wear underneath Lippmann's Glitter In The Air! (I'm hoping I'll be able to show you that combo sometime soon - let's hear it for delayed birthday presents!)

Barry M - Turquoise. As you can see, this is not turquoise at all but a true blue. Formula was better on this one but still a bit thin, 3 coats.

Very similar to OPI - What's With The Cattitude? but a bit brighter.

Barry M - Cyan Blue. Another pretty true blue! I love this particular shade of blue because it is really vibrant and stands out on your nails. This one was also 3 coats.

Similar to Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue (and therefore Blue Me Away! as well) but more of a jelly.

Barry M - Mint Green. The formula was very thin on this one as well, 4 coats. Despite being 4 coats, the jelly look is cute and I think this is my favorite mint green now!

Brighter than China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint and less blue than Essie - Turquoise and Caicos.

Barry M - Spring Green. Pretty grass green creme, 2 coats but could have used a third as I can see in the photo. I don't own any other green quite like this one! Very happy to have it.

Barry M - Fuchsia. More of a true deep pink than fuchsia as the name suggests. 2 coats! This one has a good formula, and I don't own anything quite this shade of pink!

Barry M - Blue Glitter. Hello, lovely. This is possibly the best glitter formula I have ever tried. This is just 2 coats for full, complete coverage.

Above is 1 coat. Much more dense than other glitters. And despite the density, it is still thin enough to apply very easily!

Dries to a matte finish and is very gritty, so you need topcoat with this one.

Ahh, glossy glitter.
I wore this one as a full mani!

But... I ended up having to run an errand right after applying this, and my nails lost the battle against the jeans I had to put on.
I ruined 2 nails by taking out large chunks of the glitter.
Instead of redoing my entire mani, I decided to add patches of other glitters!

I fixed the holes on my thumb and index finger, and then added fake patches on 2 other fingers to complete the look.
This design was silly, but the glitters worked nice together!

17 comments:

All my fav Barry M's all together in on post XD (except for blue moon - takes too damn long to get a good effect! Got a China glaze that does it better.) They do a red sparkle called red glitter and it's exactly the same as blue glitter - just 2 coats is all you need thought it's still a pain to come off. But it's super fast drying so kinda balances it out for me. Cyan Blue is still my current fav though.

Im from the UK, and often get asked to get BarryM.....but i tell them not to be to excited because i dont feel they are good polishes...the only decent one to me is their Crackle, its the best crackle there is....but their actual polish isn't great....i think a lot of the ladies want it because they cant buy it in the US.